The classic American self-portrait is Grant Wood's 'American Gothic', the straitlaced couple, pitchfork in hand, expressions controlled, stoically standing watch outside the barn. But to the rest of the world, American Gothic is actually two twenty-something American software engineers who come into your country wearing long hair, beads and sandals, with rings in their noses and paint on their toes. They kick down your front door, overturn everything in the house, stick a Big Mac in your mouth, fill your kids' heads with ideas you've never heard or can't understand, slam a cable box onto your television, lock the channel to MTV, plug an Internet connection into your computer and tell you: "DOWNLOAD OR DIE."--Tom Friedman